The invention relates to an apparatus and method for responding to an incoming telephone call when the called party is utilizing the telephone transmission line to provide interconnection of the called party's computer to a data network. More specifically, the invention relates to an apparatus and method for providing the called party with the capability to respond to the incoming phone call by sending a voice message to the calling party while the called party remains connected to the data network.
When an individual is interconnected on-line to a data network, such as the Internet public data network, the individual's telephone transmission line is utilized to connect that individual's computer to the network. When the individual is utilizing that line to connect to the network, the transmission line cannot be utilized to receive incoming phone calls. A caller trying to call the individual will receive a busy signal from the local exchange carrier (LEC) after the LEC tries to place the call to the called party.
In this situation where a called party is utilizing the telephone transmission line to connect to the Internet, there are known methods for responding to the incoming phone call. However, these known methods suffer drawbacks. Local Exchange Carriers (LEC) currently provide services where, if a called party's phone line is busy, the LEC can provide a pre-recorded message to the calling party via, for example, an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. This pre-recorded message provides information to the calling party regarding the availability of the called party for accepting the incoming phone call. This information, for example, can notify the calling party that the called party's phone line is busy and request that the calling party call back at a later time. Whereas this pre-recorded message is able to provide information to the calling party, drawbacks with this known method include the fact that this system does not inform the called party that they have an incoming call and does not provide any flexibility for the called party to personalize a response message to a particular calling party.
Because the called party is not informed that they have an incoming call, the called party does not have the option of accepting the call. Therefore, all incoming calls will receive the same message that the called party's phone line is busy. Additionally, since the response message is pre-recorded, the called party does not have the opportunity to provide a specific message to a calling party in response to the incoming call. Depending upon the called party's unique circumstances at the time of the call, the called party may want to provide a specific, tailored message to a calling party. This message, for example, could inform the caller that the called party is currently connected to the Internet and could also request the caller to call back at a specific time. With current IVR systems, the called party does not have the capability to provide a specific message to a calling party that is composed by the called party based on the circumstances at the time the call is being placed.
Additional systems are available that are able to notify a called party of an incoming phone call while the phone line is being utilized by the called party. An example of this type of service is the "call waiting" service provided by a telephone service provider. This service notifies a called party who is then using the telephone that another incoming call has been received. The called party can either accept the incoming call or ignore the call in response to the notification of the second call.
This same type of service is also available to a called party that is utilizing the telephone line to interconnect to the Internet. The Internet service provider can provide a signal to the called party that the called party has an incoming telephone call. But again, as with the "call waiting" service described above, the called party has the option of either accepting the call or ignoring the call. If the called party desires to accept the call, the called party can utilize the computer's microphone to talk to the calling party over the established data link. However, if the called party's computer is not powerful enough to support real-time voice communications, this option is not available to the called party.
Neither of these two "call waiting" services addressed above provide the called party with the option of responding to the incoming call by sending a message to the calling party. The called party only has the options of accepting the call or not accepting the call. If the call is not accepted, the calling party either receives a busy signal or receives a pre-recorded message as discussed above. Again, with these services, as with the Interactive Voice Response service discussed previously, there is no capability for the called party to provide a specific message to a calling party in response to the incoming phone call without accepting the call.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an apparatus and method for allowing a called party, already connected to a data network using a telephone transmission line to be able to provide a specific message to a calling party attempting to access the called party via that transmission line while not requiring the called party to directly communicate with the calling party.